Computer animation methods and techniques can involve using computer graphics systems to generate one or more animated images, characters, or objects. In some instances, the computer graphics system receives a target image and generates an animated image, character, or object. To do so, the computer graphics system creates a stylized image that mimics an artistic style or texture and looks like the target image. The stylized image is used as an animated image or character. For example, the computer graphics system may receive, as a target image, a photograph of a person used as the basis for an animated character. The computer graphics system also receives a style exemplar image (sometimes called a “template image”) that has a desired artistic style or texture to be applied to the target image, such as a watercolor drawing. The computer graphic system renders a rendition of the target image by applying the watercolor style or texture from the style exemplar image to the target image to create a stylized image that includes the person from the target image depicted as a watercolor drawing rather than a photograph.
Some existing computer graphics systems may not retain local textural details of the style exemplar image when applying the style or texture of the style exemplar image to the target image. For example, these solutions may not distinguish semantic features of the target image, such as a subject's face, from less meaningful features, such as objects in the background of the target image. This failure to focus on semantic features of the target image causes the stylized image to have an undesirable appearance (e.g., significant differences between the style or texture of the stylized image and the style exemplar image used to generate the stylized image). Furthermore, some existing methods of generating or synthesizing stylized images may require perfect alignment (e.g., warping) of the target image with the style exemplar image, which can cause the computer graphics system to warp or distort the target image when transferring the texture or style of the style exemplar image to the target image and generate a warped stylized image (e.g., a stylized image having an elongated or smeared appearance).